Yala: A Quest in the Wild

This is the article I wrote for The Sunday Times’ HitAd Travel magazine in October 2016.

The crack of dawn, on Tuesday the 16th of August 2016, brought us to Palatupana; where hundreds of people, like us, were waiting for the chance to slip into the wilds of the Yala National Park. We obtained tickets; and, escorted by a safari guide, our jeep trundled through the gates of Yala at 6.45 am.

Halfway along the main road, we encountered…a traffic jam. A Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus inornatus) had been sighted! We had to hurry - the Sloth Bear was supposed to be very elusive.

This bear wasn’t. In full view of fifty or so jeeps clustered together, it calmly rooted through several termite-nests for breakfast. It shuffled across the road, weaving between the jeeps, almost bumping against their wheels, and drank its fill from a waterhole. Then it shuffled back to its own side of the road and resumed feeding, neither nervous, nor scared, and never elusive.

Sloth Bear

Moving on, we came across several Wild Boars (Sus scrofa) and Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). The trilling of Little Green Bee-eaters (Merops orientalis) and the chirping of Red-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus cafer) filled the air. Spotted Deer (Axis axis) were nervously grazing in the shade of the few trees that had leaves.

Spotted Deer

Soon we found a Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) snoozing at the foot of a tree, just about twenty metres away from the track, taking absolutely no notice of the crowd that had gathered.

Leopard

The heat soared as the day progressed. We came to a reservoir, whose receding waters were opaque  with silt. Several Mugger Crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) were spending time either basking on the shore or lying very still in the water looking like logs. A Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) was stalking up and down with a characteristic funereal air, in comparison with its colourful cousin, the Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala), a flock of which was close beside it. The Lesser Adjutant, a rare stork, happens to be the biggest bird in Sri Lanka.

Painted Stork 

Lesser Adjutant 

Mugger Crocodile

Lunch was supposed to be on the banks of the Menik Ganga, but the place was overrun by a troop of rowdy Toque Macaques (Macaca sinica) busily raiding unattended jeeps; so we moved our meal to Pathanangala.

Menik Ganga

Boulenger’s Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis tristis)

Pathanangala

Resuming safari, we found a Changeable Hawk Eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus) on the ground. Having trapped its prey beneath a rocky crevice, it was trying to flush it out; but then, giving up, it basked in the hot sun for a while and flew off.

Changeable Hawk Eagle

At Buthawa Wewa we found a lone Elephant (Elephas maximus) munching on lotuses. A buffalo was wallowing in the mud.

After roaming through the thorn-scrub for a while, we found a waterhole, around which a variety of birds had gathered. A male Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) stood resplendent in blue, green and gold. A pair of Common Sandpipers (Actitis hypoleucos) whizzed here and there like lightning, while a lone Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) placidly probed the mud. Two Black-winged Stilts (Himantopus himantopus) were also part of the company, and Little Green Bee-eaters, Red-vented Bulbuls and a White-browed Fantail Flycatcher (Rhipidura aureola) were hunting insect prey.

Indian Peafowl 

In conclusion, the dry, scorching day had been not as good for bird-watching…but the star mammals had been up and about and had given us a treat to remember: elephants, leopards, and, of course, the “elusive” Sloth Bear. The evening sun cast long shadows across the dry, dusty plains as we slowly drove back to the gate, our hearts as full as full could be.